With five games every night now more or less routine, we’ve already hit our first 0-5 night on the farm. Worse, the five teams, over 43 innings, mustered just 19 hits. Gonna be a long year for the affiliates.

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 6, Charlotte Knights 5
It’s back to .500 for the Knights (18-18), as an inefficient offense and a malodorous start from Hagen Smith conspired for a loss. Truthfully (especially compared to the other affiliates), the offense wasn’t horrid, at least in that it put a five-spot up in the sixth inning to get to within 6-5. Korey Lee was the core of that sixth inning, doubling in two runs with the sacks packed, then scoring the tying run from third on a balk.

Sadly, with Caden Connor on second base and just one out, Michael Turner whiffed and Dru Baker flew out.

Had Hagen not dug a six-run hole for his teammates, perhaps a win would’ve been in the offing. But Smith continues to fail to show the stamina necessary to hack it as an MLB (heck, a Triple-A) starter, averaging just 3 1/3 innings per start this year and not once going deeper than four frames. While the rest of the bullpen wasn’t pretty, the relief corps held the game scoreless had the Charlotte offense converted more often than in just one inning of the game.

Knoxville Smokies 4, Birmingham Barons 3
The Barons only lost by one, falling to 14-18, and they were lucky to get off so easily. The bats were in cold freeze, with just one hit over nine innings. That hit came on the very first batter of the game, Samuel Zavala hustling out an infield single to second base.

Get this: The Barons actually took a lead in the sixth inning, 3-2, without the benefit of a hit. After walking the bases loaded, Jacob Burke grounded out to drive in one and Alec Makarewicz grounded into an error that scored two.

The pitching wasn’t sufficient in spite of allowing just four runs, and truly this was a subpar effort on all fronts from the Southern League defending champs.

Hudson Valley Renegades 8, Winston-Salem Dash 1
Winston-Salem (18-14) had twice as many hits as the Barons did — but got crushed by seven runs, as the Renegades scored in every inning but the first, fourth and sixth.

No one pitched well, but the bookender Jakes — Curtis as starter, Peppers as closer — were the worst of the four tonight.

Naturally, the only two hits of the game came from twin mashers Caleb Bonemer and Colby Shelton. After Bonemer led off the seventh with a double, Shelton scalded a double to center:

But that was it for the offense. Go get ’em on Sunday, Salems.

Columbia Fireflies 5, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 2
Columbia jumped out to a 4-1 lead by the top of the fourth, and the CBs (13-19) were unable to muster anything close to a rally the rest of the way, going 1-for-8 with RISP and not even putting forth enough traffic (four left on base) to menace. Anthony Patterson III was outstanding in middle relief for Kanny, but relieving starter Truman Pauley (now 0-5 on the season, with a 7.92 ERA) made the effort pretty much hopeless.

One bright spot? Javier Mogollón is on an epic heater:

ACL Rangers 6, ACL White Sox 5 (7 innings)
A late flurry of runs — five in the fifth inning, then a sayonara single in the seventh — nailed the lid on the coffin for the Complex Sox, who fell to 2-3. Nearly all of the Sox scoring came via a José Mendoza grand slam in the sixth inning, tying the game 5-5 at the time. But the White Sox had just three other hits. Adrian Gil did NOT have one of those hits, but scored twice and also stole two bags (well, a bag and a plate, as this catcher-in-progress stole home!).